Markus Leibrecht

City University of Macau

Brazil has recently adopted a novel approach in investment protection, the Agreements on Cooperation and Facilitation of Investment (ACFIs) which aim inter alia at promoting Brazil’s rising outward FDI. Motivated by claims that ACFIs will not achieve this goal – while otherwise tying the hands of policy makers – we use data over the years 2001 to 2...

Croakers are an economically important fish species in Nigeria. Croakers are harvested by artisanal and industrial fisheries, providing a significant source of income and livelihood for coastal communities. Yet, human activities pose a significant threat to the survival of croakers in Nigeria. This study aims to evaluate the sustainability of croak...

Brazil, after signing several traditional Bilateral Investment Treaties without ratifying them, recently shifted towards a different type of bilateral investment agreement, i.e., Investment Cooperation and Facilitation Agreements. Two claims have been made in the literature regarding the transition from traditional Bilateral Investment Treaties to...

Croakers are an economically important fish species in Nigeria. Croakers are harvested by both artisanal and commercial fisheries, and they provide a significant source of income and livelihood for coastal communities. Yet, human activities pose a significant threat to the survival of croakers in Nigeria. This study aims to evaluate the sustainabil...

How does the participation of foreign investors on local bond markets impact the volatility of bond prices and yields? An answer to this question is important for policy makers from emerging markets in their attempts to liberalize access to financial markets. However, empirical literature gives inconclusive answers to this question. Reasons are tha...

A longstanding concern has been the proposition that the international investment treaty system lacks reform. Governments forgo Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and thus forgo a driver of economic growth, employment and innovation. We assess the validity of this concern in the context of a major home and host country for global foreign direct invest...

Fish products comprise more than 20% of total Ecuadorian exports. Ecuador introduced the "National Green Export Review" (NGER) in 2015, which aims at making Ecuador's fishing industry more sustainable to improve the international market access to Ecuador's fish products. Has this policy achieved its goal? In order to answer this question, this arti...

Factors and motivations that drive individuals’ decisions on seafood consumption vary by population group and geographical locations. These factors may differ from one particular species to the other. The purpose of this study is to understand fish/shrimp consumption frequency and consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) more for shrimp locally farmed i...

The Chinese government is promoting a waste classification policy to solve the increasingly serious issue of cities being besieged by waste. Only few studies investigate whether residents’ understanding of garbage classification policy has an impact on their garbage classification behaviour and the nature of such impact. The purposes of this study...

This paper develops and uses a system synergy evaluation index which combines the Fisheries industry “outcome subsystem” with its “factors flow subsystem”. The index measures the degree of synergy of these two subsystems of the Chinese Fisheries industry at the provincial level. The index is used in an empirical analysis that aims at modeling the e...

It is commonly believed that for development economies, inward worker remittances are an important financial instrument to boost economic growth. This study investigates the relationship between inward worker remittances and economic growth for the case of Bangladesh. The study applies an Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) bounds testing approa...

The progressive retreat of Arctic sea ice in recent years has offered unprecedented opportunities for commercial shipping via Arctic shipping routes. However, actual annual transits via the Arctic Northeast Passage (NEP) are rare which signals that shipping companies are reluctant to use the NEP from a cost-benefit perspective. This paper analyzes...

The per-capita demand of fish and fish products, and paired to it, their production and trade, have substantially increased during the last few decades. For many developing countries these developments open a channel for sustainable economic progress. Against this background, this article investigates whether fish exports Granger-cause long-run eco...

Based on a sample of 16 Western OECD countries we show that although veto players with heterogeneous political preferences reduce the probability of a structural fiscal consolidation, the effect of veto players declines with greater financial market pressure, which we measure as the spread between the long-term government bond yield and the corresp...

The number of investor-state arbitration disputes has increased to more than 1000 to date, but their determinants are still not fully understood. We argue that in the wake of severe macroeconomic turmoil-economic crisis-policymakers have strong incentives to implement regulatory changes, even if these allegedly breach protection standards are provi...

We investigate the dynamic adjustment of trust in the European Central Bank and the European Commission to financial distress using aggregate data from the Eurobarometer surveys and the financial distress indicator of Romer and Romer (2017). Financial distress has a pronounced negative impact on trust and the dynamic adjustment of trust is similar...

The network of international investment agreements (IIAs) sees a rapid expansion in the last three decades. With it also the number of international investor-State disputes (ISDS), where foreign investors allege governments of breaches of IIAs, increases sharply also in Balkan, post-Soviet Union and Near and Middle East (BSNME) countries. These dis...

Postprint. Please cite as: Leibrecht, Markus and Thomas Rixen (2010) Double Tax Avoidance and Tax Competition for Mobile Capital, in: Martin Zagler (Ed.): International Tax Coordination. An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Virtues and Pitfalls, Routledge, 61-97. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203849026

While confidence in the business sector is crucial for well-functioning markets, there is surprisingly little empirical work on its sources. Available research recognizes generalized social trust and macroeconomic performance (especially unemployment and economic growth) as major forces explaining confidence in institutions and organizations in gen...

Purpose This study aims to investigate Granger-causal relations between the Ringgit-USD exchange rate and selected domestic and international economic variables after the flotation of the Ringgit beginning with 25 July 2005. Design/methodology/approach The study uses lag-augmented vector autoregression (LA-VAR) developed by Toda and Yamamoto (19...

The number of investor-state arbitration disputes has been on the rise since the mid-1990s, but their determinants are still not fully understood. This study empirically examines the association of economic crises with investor-state arbitration claims. Economic crises frequently lead to regulatory changes which, in turn, may breach protection stan...

In this paper, we examine reforms characterized by the establishment of mandatory funded privately-managed schemes in the social security framework. We construct a new dataset to analyze the determinants of pension reforms over 1980–2012 in about 100 medium and large economies around the world. Our results highlight the fundamental importance of ec...

Social trust is frequently claimed to be conducive for economic reforms. Likewise, the scope of policy liberalization is influenced by the political power structure as manifested in institutional and political constraints on the executive (IPCE). However, social trust and IPCE are possibly intertwined in their effects on economic liberalization. Th...

We explore the determinants of short-term labour migration from Armenia to Russia based on a unique panel dataset. A dynamic switching regression model with endogenous switching is applied. Our evidence pinpoints migration experience, the expected individual income gap from migration, low job opportunities in Armenia and the possibility of diversif...

High levels of social capital, by fostering cooperation and coordination, have direct implications for the intensity of collective action problems in a society. While it has been shown that high levels of social capital facilitate the implementation of institutional reforms we argue that the extent of social capital also determines the success of r...

We analyze electorally motivated public spending using disaggregated expenditure data. Election cycles in total expenditures and in specific sub-categories mainly exist in newly democratized Eastern European countries. However, electorally motivated spending policies are ineffective means to enhance the re-election probability.

Die Debatte über Offshore-Leaks und die sehr geringen Steuerzahlungen großer multinationaler Konzerne haben das öffentliche Interesse auf das Problem „Steueroasen“ gelenkt. Wenn Konzerne Steuersatzunterschiede zwischen verschiedenen Ländern ausnutzen, kann Steuergestaltung durchaus legal sein. Werden aber steuerpflichtige Einkommen von Privatperson...

This article analyzes the effects of globalization on implicit tax rates (ITRs) on labor income, capital income, and consumption in the EU15 and Central and Eastern European New Member States (CEE NMS). We find supportive evidence for an increase in the ITR on labor income in the EU15, but no effect on the ITR on capital income. There is evidence o...

In this paper we empirically explore how characteristics of the domestic financial system influence the international allocation of consumption risk using a sample of OECD countries. Our results show that the extent of risk sharing achieved does not depend on the overall development of the domestic financial system per se. Rather, it depends on how...

Based on a spatially augmented gravity model the current paper isolates spatial interrelationships in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) not only across the destination but also across the origin country dimension of FDI. Results show that: (i) spatial interrelationships across destination countries ar...

In this paper we analyze how the availability of credit in uences the relationship between government size as a proxy for scal stabilization policy and the amplitude of business cycle uctuations in a sample of advanced OECD countries. Interpreting relatively low loan-tovalue ratios as an indication for tight credit constraints, we nd that governmen...

A well-established infrastructure endowment is frequently seen to be an important prerequisite for the catching up of emerging and transition economies. Broadly speaking, infrastructure can be defined as the ‘social overhead capital’ of an economy (Hirschman, 1958), which is necessary for economic agents, for example firms, to start and conduct the...

In line with previous literature, we find that strict employment protection deters foreign direct investment. This finding is consistent with the view that rigid labour markets result in high adjustment and exit costs which discourage firm investment. Moreover, our results are consistent with the view that the deterrent effect of rigid labour marke...

This paper analyzes the effects of globalization on social protection expenditures in European countries. The particular focus is on (a) the Eastern European countries and (b) on differences in globalization effects between welfare regimes. We find evidence in favor of the compensation hypothesis in Western Europe which is driven by the conservativ...

Abstract Since the mid 1980s, tax rates on corporate income have declined in most industrialized countries. Tax competition between countries for mobile capital has frequently been mentioned as an explanation for this development. A vast empirical literature dealing with tax competition for mobile capital has emerged. This paper categorizes and sum...

This paper explores the effect dividend taxes exert on dividends repatriated from foreign affiliates to their German parent companies. The empirical analysis based on firm-level data from the Microdatabase Direct Investment provided by the Deutsche Bundesbank first signals the validity of the original Lintner model for cross-border intrafirm divide...

Based on earlier empirical literature for Central and Eastern European Countries this paper attempts to analyze the likely impact of changes in corporate income taxes, in the endowment with production-related material infrastructure and in the institutional environment on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) – and thus on one channel of regional develop...

In line with previous literature this paper finds that employment protection legislation, especially regulations towards regular employment, has a negative impact on the volume of inward Foreign Direct Investment. Yet, we also find that the deterrent effect of inflexible labor markets is predominantly given for industries with relatively high share...

We analyse the adjustment process of consumption growth after disequilibrating output shocks in a sample of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. In particular, we test the hypothesis that consumption is smoothed to a lesser degree after negative shocks, whereas the impact of a positive shock is delayed for a longe...

There are two largely distinct bodies of literature and corresponding research areas in international taxation. On the one hand, there is the big and continuously growing body of theoretical and empirical literature on tax competition, mainly in the field of economics; on the other, there is a large body of mostly legal literature dealing with inte...

In line with previous literature this paper finds that strict employment protection legislation has a negative impact on the volume of inward Foreign Direct Investment. Rigid labor markets result in high adjustment and exit costs which deter foreign investments. We also find that the deterrent effect of inflexible labor markets is larger for indust...

In this article we investigate empirically the importance of labour market conditions and in particular the role of employment protection legislation as determinants of bilateral Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). We find that FDI flows are significantly higher in countries with relatively low unit labour costs. We also find that employment protectio...

In line with previous literature this paper finds that strict employment protection legislation has a negative impact on the volume of inward Foreign Direct Investment. Rigid labor markets result in high adjustment and exit costs which deter foreign investments. We also find that the deterrent effect of inflexible labor markets is larger for indust...

This paper analyses the importance of taxes on corporate income and production-related tangible infrastructure as determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). We operationalise taxes using effective average tax rates on the bilateral level and employ indices derived from principal component anal...

This paper explores the impact dividend taxes exert on the dividends repatriated from foreign affiliates to their German parent company. Based on an augmented Lintner model of firms' dividend payout decisions, the paper focusses on cross-border intra-firm dividend payments of wholly-owned foreign affiliates in the manufacturing sector. Firm-level d...

This paper calculates indices of central bank autonomy (CBA) for 163 central banks as of end-2003, and comparable indices for a subgroup of 68 central banks as of the end of the 1980s. The results confirm strong improvements in both economic and political CBA over the past couple of decades, although more progress is needed to boost political auton...

Recent studies argue that the spread-adjusted Taylor rule (STR), which includes a response to the credit spread, replicates monetary policy in the United State. We show (1) STR is a theoretically optimal monetary policy under heterogeneous loan interest rate contracts in both discretionay and commitment monetary policies, (2) however, the optimal r...

Using public policy instruments to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has become standard in most countries, irrespective of their level of development, geographical location or industrial structure. Against this background the paper analyses the suitability of various public policies to attract inward FDI stock based on a sample of 11 countri...

We analyse the determinants of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) across selected Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) focusing on labour costs. We propose a labour cost measure which is relevant for the location decisions of Multinational Enterprises. A panel-gravity model approach is used to empirically assess the impact of market-related...

In this paper we provide a characterization of international consumption risk sharing among a sample of OECD countries based on panel cointegration and error-correction techniques. Our results indicate that around 30% of idiosyncratic consumption risks are shared in the short run. In the long run, however, only about 10% of idiosyncratic consumptio...

This paper analyzes the importance of taxes on corporate income and production-related tangible infrastructure as determinants of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Central-and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). We operationalize taxes using effective average tax rates on the bilateral level and employ indices derived from principal component anal...

We argue from a conceptual and empirical point of view that tax-rate elasticities of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Central and East European Countries (CEECs) derived from statutory tax rates (STRs) are likely to be flawed. STRs are problematic measures of tax burden as they capture neither tax base effects, nor effects of the home country or...

Tax competition for mobile capital has recently emerged in the political debate of several European Union (EU) Member States against the background of the enlargement of the EU. Governments in Central and East European Countries (CEECs) have frequently been accused of engaging in tax competition for mobile capital in general and Foreign Direct Inve...

This paper gives an overview of the current version of the quarterly macroeconomic model of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank for Austria. The model is a small to medium size macroeconomic model. It is in the tradition of the neoclassical synthesis and is therefore in line with most models used by euro system central banks. The model has been exten...

The paper originates from the casual observation that the application of the Devereux and Griffith methodology to calculate bilateral effective average tax rates (BEATRs) leads to results indicating that BEATRs for German outbound investment increased sharply from 1999 to 2001, despite a marked reduction of the statutory corporate tax rate in Germa...

In this note we show that tax-rate elasticities of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Central and East European Countries (CEECs) derived from statutory corporate income tax rates (STRs) are likely to be flawed. From a conceptual point of view STRs are problematic as they neither capture tax base effects, nor effects of the home country, the intern...

Governments in Central and East European Countries (CEEC-5; see Table 16.1) intervene to influence the location choice of multinational enterprises (MNEs) by various measures. They provide incentive packages, fiscal and non-fiscal, and they try to shape various location factors in order to lower production costs for foreign firms. One location fact...

Fifty six bilateral country relationships combining 7 home countries from the EU and the US, and 8 Central and East European host countries (CEECs) of foreign direct investment (FDI) from 1995-2003 are used in a panel gravity-model setting to estimate the role of taxation as a determinant of FDI. While gravity variables explain most of the variatio...

Company-taxation policies in the Central and East European New Member States (CEE-NMS) have been frequently characterised as tax-cutting strategies in order to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). On the basis of a survey of six empirical studies a median value of the tax-rate elasticities of FDI of -0.22 in CEE-NMS and mediterranean periphery...

The Central- and East European Countries have lowered their corporate tax rates substantially in order to induce shifts of production capacity to their countries. This paper analyses empirically how inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows channeled to these countries reacts to these tax policies. We estimate a panel of 35 bilateral country-rel...

We estimate a panel of 56 bilateral country-relationships of 7 home and 8 host countries of foreign direct investment (FDI) from 1995-2003 using a panel gravity-model setting to analyze the role of taxation as a determinant of FDI. While gravity variables explain most of the variation of FDI inflows, the bilateral effective average tax rate is also...

The Central-and East European Countries have lowered their corporate tax rates substantially in order to induce shifts of production capacity to their countries. This paper analyses empirically how inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows channeled to these countries reacts to these tax policies. We estimate a panel of 35 bilateral country-rela...

In this note we show that tax-rate elasticities of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) toCentral and East European Countries (CEECs) derived from statutory corporate incometax rates (STRs) are likely to be flawed. From a conceptual point of view STRs areproblematic as they neither capture tax base effects, nor effects of the home country, theinternatio...

Company-taxation policies in the Central and East European New Member States (CEE-NMS) have been frequently characterised as tax-cutting strategies in order to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). On the basis of a survey of six empirical studies a median value of the tax-rate elasticities of FDI of -0.22 in CEE-NMS and mediterranean periphery...

In recent years many Central-and East European Countries have lowered their corporate tax rate s in order to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). We estimate a panel of 56 bilateral country-relationships of 7 home and 8 host countries over a period of 1995-2003 and use a gravity-model setting to check for market-related, efficiency-related and...

Der Beitrag analysiert die Präzision der Aufkommensprognose wichtiger Bundesabgaben der Jahre 1976 bis 2002 in Österreich. Dadurch wird eine im Schrifttum bestehende Forschungs- und Informationslücke verringert. Eine Prognose wird dazu als präzise verstanden, wenn sie sowohl unverzerrt als auch im Mittel genau ist. Die Prognose des Steueraufkommens...

Kapitel drei befasst sich mit den Determinanten der Präzision einer kurzfristigen Steueraufkommensprognose. Basierend auf dem „Theoretical Model of Government Revenue Forecast Accuracy over an 18 Months Forecast Horizon“ (BG-Modell) von Bretschneider und Gorr (1987) wird ein Modell der Determinanten der Präzision abgeleitet. Die einzelnen Determina...

Im zweiten Kapitel der Arbeit wird skizziert, dass einer präzisen Steueraufkommensprognose eine wichtige finanzpolitische Funktion zukommt. Um die Implementierung einer Steueraufkommensschätzung in der Praxis zu gewährleisten, sind geeignete rechtliche Bestimmungen notwendig. Dieses Kapitel präsentiert die wichtigsten Rechtsvorschriften in Österrei...

Dieses Kapitel bietet eine umfassende statistische Evaluation der Steueraufkommensprognose - getrennt nach dem Bruttogesamtaufkommen (BGA) an Abgaben und nach ausgewählten Einzelsteuern.150 Die Auswertung inkludiert nicht alle vom Bund eingehobene Steuern. Evaluiert wird die Prognose des BGA und der fünf fiskalisch wichtigsten Steuern - Umsatzsteue...

Um das Vorliegen einer präzisen Steueraufkommensprognose empirisch zu überprüfen, bedarf es einer geeigneten Operationalisierung des Begriffs der Präzision. Im Folgenden werden eine Definition von Präzision sowie statistische Methoden (Evaluationsmethoden) zur Ermittlung der Präzision vorgestellt und erläutert. Davor wird die finanzpolitische Bedeu...

Im folgenden Kapitel werden der Ablauf und die verwendeten Methoden der ultrakurzfristigen und der kurzfristigen Prognose der Bundesabgaben in Österreich präsentiert und erläutert. Aufgrund der vorhandenen Informationslücke entstammen die nachstehenden Ausführungen Primärerhebungen (Experteninterviews und schriftlichen Befragungen) bei den an der S...

Das Schlusskapitel zeigt nochmals das mit dieser Arbeit verfolgte Forschungsvorhaben und bringt eine Zusammenfassung der wichtigsten Ergebnisse. Anhand der Forschungsergebnisse werden zentrale Schlussfolgerungen und Verbesserungsvorschläge für die Steueraufkommensprognose in Österreich abgeleitet.

Das vorangegangene Kapitel zeigt, dass das Aufkommen der fiskalisch wichtigsten Einzelsteuern mit Ausnahme der Lohnsteuer unpräzise prognostiziert wird. Das Bruttogesamtaufkommen wird aufgrund eines Fehlerausgleichs präzise prognostiziert. Im Folgenden wird das im dritten Kapitel vorgestellte Modell der Determinanten der Präzision einer kurzfristig...

Within the EU, taxation and the EU's eastern enlargement are currently seen as one of the most important problems to be solved and projects to be realized. Each of these two topics covers a vast set of issues which have to be dealt with. At the same time only few attempts have been made to answer those questions that arise if the two topics are com...